Devlog May 22nd - Putting Northern Hills map into the game

 Welcome to the second devlog of May!

Last time we drew the new area and characters and this time we work on putting it all into the game.

Firstly, we put the map itself in and started defining where the player can walk and where they can't.

Ignore the minotaur in the middle, we will replace him shortly.

In the above image, a lot of squares can be seen. These will be invisible to the player, but are useful for us while making the game.

Purple squares indicate "walls" that blocks the player's movement. There's a lot of them in the map.

Next, we added the correct characters to the scene and added a few points of interaction.

We've added a green and a red square near the bottom left. This is the entrance and exit, respectively. So it is now possible for the player to travel between this new map and the town and the village. The player will be able to freely travel between these area as they want.

We've also added some blue squares with an info sign. These are tiles that interact with the player in some way. Along the edge near the top left farm there's a few that will push the player back if they walk onto the square. This is an alternative to a wall since they also prevent the player's movement, but in a different way. It adds a little bit of variety to the map.

Another blue square that might be difficult to see is on the fence gate. This is a simple interaction where the player can open the gate to pass through.

The final blue square is near the bottom left entrance. This is a cutscene that will only play the first time the player steps on it. It will lead to several dialogues and then the player will be transported to the central clearing for a fight.

Here's the central clearing, re-drawn as a battle map

When we convert an area of an exploration map into a battle map, we have to move a lot of things around. That's because battle maps are based on hexagonal tiles and the exploration maps are based on squares. So we have to make sure that trees, rocks and shadows all are in positions that makes sense.

We hope the player's will appreciate the extra work. Here's a different battle map:

This battle map is based on the top right part of the Northern Hills

Hopefully these layouts will offer some interesting variations in the battles.

Next, we have to set up more dialogue in the Northern Hills and we need to create abilities and equipment for the new party members.

We'll continue working on this until the next update, which will be June 12th. Talk to you then!